What Happens If the Other Party Does Not Have Insurance?

The Houston Auto Accidents Attorneys at DeSimone Law Office get many calls from potential clients who have been in a traffic accident with another driver who does not have insurance. Unfortunately in hard economic times many people who are struggling to pay for food with rapidly increasing food prices will have to forgo paying for something else which is often times their liability insurance. Clients will ask what they can to do to the uninsured driver to pay for their property damages and personal injuries. Unfortunately the answer is nothing that will net anything in the way of a significant amount of money. The thing is that if someone can’t afford car insurance then they probably are judgment proof, meaning that if you obtain a judgment against them it won’t be collectible. In Texas a person’s homestead on one acre of property not matter how valuable the property is protected from a judgment. Also certain pieces of personal property such as cars and furniture are protected from judgment. Getting a judgment against someone is not easy either. First a lawsuit has to be filed and filing fees paid. Then you have to serve the lawsuit and wait for the other party to file an answer to the suit before getting a hearing before a judge. This process will take a minimum of several months. Now you have a judgment that is probably uncollectible. You can do an asset search of the uninsured party on your own which would be time consuming or pay a private investigator a 1000 dollars to do an asset search. One thing you can do is send the judgment to the Texas Department of Public Safety which will suspend the unisnured driver’s Texas driver’s license for ten years or until the judgment is paid. By this time of course you have probably experienced hardship in getting around in a damaged vehicle and have suffered considerable pain with no way to pay for medical treatment. What is the solution to this problem? The solution is making sure you have coverages on your car that will make you whole if you are in a car accident with an uninsured driver. Of course you have to be on your guard when calling your insurance agent and asking for “full coverage” as that can mean diferent things to different people. We will cover that next week.

In the meantime if you have any questions regarding insurance coverages or have been in an accident with an unisured motorist, contact the lawyers at DeSimone Law Office immediately. We will be more than happy to advise you on what coverages to purchase or assist you with any uninsured motorist claim.